Revolution

With America’s 250th Independence Day less than a week away, this week’s film takes us back to the war that made the celebration possible in the first place. 

In 1776, New York fur trapper Tom Dobb (Al Pacino) would rather not have anything to do with the rebellion against the British crown. But when his teen son is swept up by the Continental Army, Tom is compelled to follow, intending to protect his son and bring him home, unaware that the war will become an eight-year life-changing ordeal that will test everything he has.

As the war drags on, Tom and his son endure hunger, the chaos of battle, and the cruelty of enemy soldiers, with no guarantee that their sacrifices will amount to anything. Along the way, Tom crosses paths with a young woman from a wealthy loyalist family who, like him, has had her life upended by the revolution. Through their eyes, the film shows a side of the American Revolution rarely depicted on screen: not the triumphant speeches of the founding fathers or the tidy narratives of inevitable victory, but the suffering of ordinary people caught in the fight for a country being born.

Revolution offers a sobering reminder that the freedoms we may take for granted today were not easily won, but purchased at great cost by people who endured hardships difficult to imagine. It may be a heavier choice for the Fourth of July, but gives us a chance to reflect on the real price of liberty, leaving us with a renewed gratitude for the sacrifices that made modern celebrations possible. The film is rated PG, but the film’s darker tone and scenes of war violence make it best suited for older children and teens. (The director’s cut is PG-13, but is largely the same.)

(For a lighter take on America’s founding, our past recommendations of 1776 and National Treasure offer a gentler way to mark the holiday.)

Runtime: 2 hours, 6 minutes
Rated PG
USCCB rating: A-II
IMDb Parents Guide
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